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Sasol and the Indonesian government signed a memorandum of understanding on 3 December for a screening study on the viability of an integrated coal-to-liquids (CTL) project using Sasol’s proprietary technology.

Korea Electric Power Corporation (Kepco) is due to complete pre-investment studies for the planned Ghana-Burkina Faso-Mali interconnection by year-end, according to the European Investment Bank (EIB),

CAPE VERDE: Martifer wins solar contract; EGYPT: Talkha CCGT tenders; EGYPT: Feedwater heaters for supercritical plant; GHANA: Substation work; LIBYA: Generation policy rethink, nuclear options; MOROCCO: Spanish win HEP revamp work; TUNISIA: Cap Bon IPP prequalification; TUNISIA: Bizerte IPP bidding

Sterling Energy has opted to withdraw from offshore Block C-3, assigning its 40.5% stake to Tullow Oil at no cost. The company, which farmed into the block in February 2015, said the 2D seismic data had “not sufficiently derisked the block potential” to justify entering the next exploration phase, which involves 700km2 of 3D seismic and a well, but it remained committed to the adjacent Block C-10, where it farmed in in June. A well is planned on C-10 in 2017.

Efforts are being made to improve maritime security along the Puntland coast

The much-anticipated national LNG development plan is going ahead with a strengthened advisory team and revised targets, working to new bid deadlines, which take account of the ambitious integrated project’s scale and follow officials’ analysis of input from potential investors. Some of the heads of state who have lobbied King Mohammed VI, and among the 100-plus potential liquefied natural gas (LNG) suppliers who have lined up to see Ministry of Energy, Mining, Water and Environment senior adviser Abdellaziz El Gamah, may find it worth the wait: the long-term quantity of gas required at the new Jorf Lasfar terminal is now expected to be 10bcm/yr, double the original forecast.

Sonelgaz’s president tells African Energy that ‘our differences with Dii have been resolved’ as Algeria reassesses its attitude to European mega-schemes, writes Selwa Calderbank in Brussels

French utility Engie has inaugurated its first mini-grid in Zambia. The PowerCorner mini-grid is located in the village of Chitandika, a community of 378 households in the east of the country. The grid will supply a rural health centre and two schools as well as homes and businesses. Engie aims to develop 2,000 mini-grids in Africa by 2025.

Sinohydro has given Alstom a contract worth about €58m ($77m) to provide electro-mechanical equipment and technical services for the 600MW Karuma hydropower project on the Victoria Nile. The French engineering giant said on 27 February that Alstom Hydro China would supply, install, test and commission six 100MW Francis turbine-generator sets and related equipment, and provide site services. The run-of-river project, which is to be located in the districts of Kiryadongo and Oyam, 15km downstream of the Karuma Falls in northern Uganda, is being developed by Sinohydro under an engineering, procurement and construction contract signed in June 2013.

Tullow Oil has slashed 2020 spending and announced plans to cut its workforce by a third as it reported a 2019 loss of $1.69bn, compared to an $85m profit in 2018. Already under pressure due to lower than anticipated production in Ghana and delays in farming down part of its stake in Uganda, the company has been hard hit by the sharp drop in the oil price in recent days.

ConocoPhillips has had another disappointment in the Kwanza Basin with the Omosi-1 well on Block 37. The company said the well had been drilled to 6,300 metres total depth and had encountered a 160 metre gas column. No further activity is planned, and the well has been plugged and abandoned. After Cobalt’s big Cameia discovery on Block 21 in February 2012 and Maersk’s smaller 2011 Azul find on Block 23, there were high hopes for the Kwanza Basin. Angola had hoped the pre-salt play would deliver the same success as on the other side of the Atlantic, but it has not been an unqualified success.

The United States has opted to withdraw from implementing the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) but will continue to support its implementation by other states. In a letter to EITI board chairman Fredrik Reinfeldt on 2 November, US Office of Natural Resources Revenue (ONRR) director Gregory J Gould, said the US was withdrawing as an EITI implementing country with immediate effect.

Energy and Mines Minister Chakib Khelil has considerably added to the complexity of the planned licensing round, to be run for the first time by regulator Agence Nationale pour la Valorisation des Ressources en Hydrocarbures (Alnaft), by announcing via a Financial Times interview that for some blocks at least bidders will be required to “swap assets” to gain access to attractive acreage (AE 131/17).

The escalation of the euro crisis has added to concerns about Francophone African risk, although risk perceptions and pricing remain stable for now. There has already been an impact on trade finance availability and, as the Eurozone crisis unfolds, it may become harder still to source bilateral and commercial finance, writes Kevin Godier

Over the past several years, power cuts have become a standard feature of Egyptian summers. This year, nation-wide blackouts started in mid-March, indicating the country may be heading towards one of the most difficult peak demand seasons ever. Interim prime minister Ibrahim Mahlab has demanded that Egyptian Electricity Holding Company accelerate the completion of an additional 2,400MW of generation capacity, to bring it on stream by June instead of August. The government has also returned to plans that it rejected last year to commission a temporary floating regasification unit to allow it to import liquefied natural gas (LNG).